Extraordinary Ordinary Women - of North Wiltshire, by Lucy Whitfield

Believing whole-heartedly that ordinary women of the past were far more than just wives and mothers, author Lucy Whitfield has set out to discover and profile a collection of interesting women from across North Wiltshire. Digging much deeper than the usual suffrage-and-STEM criteria for interesting women’s stories, these twenty case studies take in inspirational teachers, gutsy landladies, pioneering social workers, a war hero with her beloved hounds, mental health patients at the mercies of Victorian care, a herbalist accused of murder, a nun who was stoned in the street, a young woman who eloped with her adoptive uncle, a beauty influencer with an acidic tongue, and a charwoman who hid her pregnancy and suffered the consequences. And more . . . These tales of ordinary, extraordinary lives, played out against the canvas of North Wiltshire, show the depth and breadth of women’s history out there for the taking. And are intended to inspire people to look harder at the lives of their women-folk, and what’s simmering there just under the surface. March 2024, viii, 164 pp, illustrated paperback, £12.95, ISBN 978-1-914407-66-6